This is a short post for my excursion this morning (10 Feb 2011). The ship is moored in Dorian Bay, a cover on the NW side of Wiencke Island, which is located in teh Palmer Archipelago. First we took a zodiac tour of part of the bay and saw some awesome icebergs (one looked just like an iguana/lizard). After puttering on our zodiac we made our way to the landing site, which was slick and rocky. Weather conditions - freezing rain - made3 the landing this am a bit trickier than usual, but thanks to non-slip pads, everyone made it on and off land just fine.
On land there is a Gentoo Penguin Colony. I got some great shots of the gentoos (bigger than chinstraps, white earmuffs). Unfortunately, this is not the year of the Gentoo. Gentoos have been doing really well over the last 20 years as the water and land around here have warmed. Normally, Antarctica doesn't get much precipation, it's an ice desert. However, the naturalist told me that there was a lot of snow this year (unusual) so the Gentoos couldn't make their nests until late. What I saw today was the result of that; a lot of baby penguins shivering in the cold freezing rain without their coats to survive, many of whom will not survive once fall arrives here shortly. A lot of the baby penguins were abandoned. Some were being well tended to by both parents. One sitting on top of the two chicks and one running off and gathering food or rocks to build a better nest. I got some great shots of this. Sadly, I also saw quite a few broken eggs laying around and some dead baby penguins. The healthier ones that I saw should survive. There was one woman on my zodiac trip back to the ship who kept on asking couldn't anything be done to save them? Basically, no. Gentoos only care for their own children and won't tend to others.
Another interesting thing I noticed was that the distance between two nests in generally no longer than the distance between respective mothers/fathers beaks. They poke at each other, but no one can harm the others children.
Iguana Iceberg:
Gentoo Penguins:
No comments:
Post a Comment